Utility Cycling - Big Dummy Article

http://www.startribune.com/business/16688786.html

Smart money's on the Big Dummy

A new bike is being billed as a replacement for cars. It can haul gear, and has an optional electric motor.

[more]

One disadvantage of the BD frame for those of you with kids (or who might have them later) is that the PeaPod baby seat will not fit on the frame.

Good to see they're actually mentioning Surly, Xtracycle, and Clever Cycles this time. The last local news article made it sound like something a few guys put together in their garage.


One disadvantage of the BD frame for those of you with kids (or who might have them later) is that the PeaPod baby seat will not fit on the frame.
Not quite. From an email sent to those with Big Dummies on order:


PEAPOD compatibility:

The pea-pod child carrier is compatible with the BIG DUMMY, though it
attaches in an unconventional way:

A number of Big Dummy customers have expressed concern about whether or not the Big Dummy will allow the Pea Pod to be attached. Indeed, the Pod is designed to fit the struts to the seatstays of your bike. The Big Dummy doesn't exactly have seat stays in the same place as a regular bike. As a result, you must attach the Pea Pod to the Xtracycle V-racks. The struts on the Pea Pod are set such that you must either run them on the inside of the Xtracycle V-racks, forcing the V-racks out...or you can run them on the outside of the V-racks pushing them in. Going the route of having struts on the inside allows you to use the snap deck, but makes securing struts a bit of a challenge. Putting the struts on the outside means you can't run a conventional snap deck. As you will see in the photos, our 2nd Prototype TekDeck will work with the PeaPod struts running outside. But the length of the TekDeck doesn't accommodate another passenger behind the PeaPod. *TekDecks, by the way, will be available later this year.

See photos attached detailing the Big Dummy attachment options.
http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/771/img4344al5.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7999/img4345xn8.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1559/img4350mn8.jpg
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/761/img4351og0.jpg

"Peapod" :D That's cute!

Not quite. From an email sent to those with Big Dummies on order
Good to know. When I wrote Surly about 3 weeks ago, the response I received said not to take the chance on purchasing the frame as it's currently being built if I wanted to eventually use a PeaPod. Maybe something changed.

Good to know. When I wrote Surly about 3 weeks ago, the response I received said not to take the chance on purchasing the frame as it's currently being built if I wanted to eventually use a PeaPod. Maybe something changed.

I hope there's a way to make it work. I just picked up a bobike maxi (peapod) on ebay that I'd planned to mount on the BD when the little one outgrows the bobike mini. If not, I'll just fabricate something to sit on the snapdeck I guess.